By Allie Elvington
Some students in Dillon County no longer have the opportunity to receive medical services through a non-profit organization that serves 11 schools and over 100 kids.
Healthy Learners of Dillon recently had to reduce their service to three days a week due to a lack of funding from community supporters, and for some students this will mean missing eye exams or doctor’s appointments.
Since their beginning in the fall of 2005 Healthy Learners of Dillon has helped 1143 students attend 2837 services. This year alone Healthy Learners has provided 127 students with access to 315 services. Since reducing their service to three days a week, they also had to reduce the number of children who receive medical service through Healthy Learners. Their goal is to do 33 services a week, but since hours were cut in November of 2011 Healthy Learners only provides 16 to 18 services a week. Last year by this time Healthy Learners was able to help 30 more children attend over 60 more services than they have this year. This is a reduction in nearly half of the services provided to students.
Healthy Learners provides transportation and payment assistance for doctor’s appointments, therapy, and eye exams for children in grades k-12 who are either uninsured or underinsured. They serve Dillon District Three and Dillon District Four.
Their number one service is eye care. They provide students with glasses if needed and check for other conditions.
Dee Newell a Coordinator for Healthy Learners, said, “We’ve actually found that a lot of students have a condition where pressure builds behind the eye, which can lead to glaucoma and eventually blindness if it goes untreated.”
Newell explained that for parents who can’t get off work, or simply don’t have transportation Healthy Learners gives them another option. Healthy Learners pick children up from the school and bring them back after their appointment. They also provide some financial help to cover the cost of exams, glasses, and even medication.
“We’ve had instances where a student had an acute illness or gotten sick at school. If we had permission from parents from something that had happened earlier that year we called the parent for permission, and Healthy Learners has gotten the child an appointment and taken him or her to be seen that same day,” said Kelly Greene, Head Nurse at Dillon District Four.
The goal of Healthy Learners is to help those who may fall through the “cracks” of the system.
Students are referred to Healthy Learners by the school nurse who uses the free or reduced lunch system as a guideline to determine those students who may qualify. Healthy Learners strives to provide service to every student who is referred, however they simply lack the resources to make that happen. Greene has referred 40 students from Stewart Heights Elementary School this year and of those, 25 students are currently receiving services through Healthy Learners.
“Healthy Learners has been very beneficial to our students, they can receive glasses and medication that for whatever reason their parents couldn’t get for them,” stated Greene.
Healthy Learners receives most of its funding through their charity golf tournament that is held every year, but they also rely heavily on community support as well. The George Younginer Memorial Golf Tournament provides funding for all five of the Healthy Learner Locations in South Carolina. Businesses from the Dillon and Pee Dee area have been wonderful supporters of Healthy Learners, but due to the economic hardship many companies are facing they have seen a significant decrease in funding.
Healthy Learners believes that the most successful students are healthy students, and their goal is to make sure that every student who is in need of medical service is provided for.
For more information about Healthy Learners, or to make donations, call (843) 774-1907 or e-mail Dee Newell at dnewell@healthylearners.com.